How to Remotely Control your Mac from Anywhere

This article describes how you can remotely control your iMac or Macbook from any other computer or even your mobile phone. You can shutdown the Mac, send desktop screenshots over the web or takes pictures with the iSight webcam.

TweetMyPC, a free utility that lets you control a Windows computer from anywhere has just been ported to Mac. The new app is called TweetMyMac and, like its elder Windows cousin, you can use TweetMyMac to send commands to your Macbook over the web from any other computer or even a mobile phone (via a SMS text message).

The Mac-Twitter Workflow

It works like this. You install the app on your Mac and associate it with your Twitter account*. Now you can send a regular tweet with the command wrapped in (for example, shutdown or sleep). The utility running on the Mac will check for your tweets at frequent intervals and will perform the required action on the remote Mac computer as soon as it finds some command in the twitter stream.

*It is recommended that you create a separate Twitter id (with “protected” updates) for sending remote commands to your Mac.

Send Remote Commands to your Mac

Here are some useful commands that you may send to your Mac via TweetMyMac:

2. iSight – This is great if you want to know what’s happening in the surroundings. Send the iSight command and the app will take a picture with the built-in iSight web camera and will upload it to Twitpic.

3. Screenshot – If you want to know what applications are open on your Mac desktop, send the “screenshot” command – the picture of your desktop will again be uploaded to twitpic.

The app is in beta (so expect some bugs) and obviously it should always be running on your Mac computer for receiving commands.

Amit Agarwal is a web geek and founder of Digital Inspiration, a popular tech & how-to website. He has been blogging for over a decade and has also contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Lifehacker and The Financial Express. Sign-up for the email newsletter for your daily dose of tips & tutorials.